Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire is doing things in a big way for his departure from Bercy

Michel Barnier promises a government for next week. The last days are therefore looming for the current ministers. Many would like to stay but some are in a hurry to leave, like Bruno Le Maire who is organizing his “thank you speech” on Thursday morning.

Bruno Le Maire is in the starting blocks to leave Bercy. “It’s been seven years, it has to end one day,” said his entourage. Bruno Le Maire is doing, Thursday September 12 at 11 a.m., a “thank you speech”, without waiting for the transfer of power with the future Minister of the Economy. “He is right, because the handover is above all the moment of the new minister,” slips an advisor to the executive. Bruno Le Maire will therefore make his mark.

All Bercy agents are invited, but also parliamentarians, local elected officials, former collaborators of all the ministers who have worked at Bercy since 2017, and of course business leaders, representatives of professional federations… A stage, a sound system and screens are installed in the courtyard of the ministry. “Compared to that, the transfer of power from Attal to Matignon was tiny,” are we having fun in the corridors of Bercy. Bruno Le Maire will now take a step back and devote himself to teaching. A goodbye, but not a farewell because “politics is never over”, assures a relative.

Other ministers are leaving, such as Roland Lescure, who will still be at Industry for a few days. He is not a candidate to join Barnier’s team. A figure of the left wing, he was elected vice-president of the Assembly, where everything will be decided, and he has already warned: he will not grant “automatically” his confidence in the new Prime Minister. Another figure from the left wing who is quite ready to join the Assembly: Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Elected as a member of parliament for Pas-de-Calais, she believes that after the defeat of the presidential camp, a change in government casting is needed. The MoDem also considers that elections imply new faces. Marc Fesneau is therefore ready to take up his duties as head of the group in the Assembly. Others are eager to leave to return to their “freedom of speech” or have not “I don’t want to be friends with the RN to avoid the government being overthrown”Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition, has already planned to be re-elected mayor of Angers on September 23, even though relations are good between his party, Horizons, and Michel Barnier.

Many of their colleagues would like to remain ministers. “Many people find it difficult to come to terms with the idea of ​​leaving the stage,” a minister squeaks. According to an advisor, this “a lot” represents “half of the government”. Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday September 11 on BFM that he did not see “no inconvenience” that current ministers remain so, but there is a risk of disappointment. According to some of the Prime Minister’s interlocutors, Michel Barnier wants something new.